12 Crazy Diet And Exercise Fads In History, From Tapeworms To AirShorts

If you want to get healthy and fit, may I suggest some bile beans? How about a tapeworm? Would you prefer rolling around in a giant hamster wheel, or perhaps being strapped into a rubber corset? Health and diet fads throughout history have veered between the vaguely sensible and the completely crackpot — and I've collected 12 of the latter for your delectation.

The good thing about thoroughly bonkers health crazes is that it makes us look with relief at how simple things are nowadays. Just a Zumba class, a hormone-based diet, a juicer and a Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook, and we're all set. But how many of them will be the strange health fads of the future? Food (if not tapeworms) for thought...